Real Madrid to commission sale of struggling young defender
Once one of the most promising center back prospects in Europe, Real Madrid’s Jesus Vallejo’s development has stagnated.
Real Madrid need to look to the future defensively and rethink the players they are developing behind Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane at center back, as well as Dani Carvajal at right back.
Carvajal and Varane are still in their primes, and Ramos remains highly effective at the age of 34. But with Eder Militao as the lone young backup showing quality due to Jesus Vallejo’s issues, Alvaro Odriozola struggling, and Achraf Hakimi gone, the next two summers could be full of more changes to the defensive prospects in the team.
According to a report from Sergio Santos Chozas of AS, Real Madrid are already prepared to sell half of Vallejo’s rights for seven to eight million euros so that they can buy him back. It’s an approach Real has frequently taken with prospects they still value despite recent struggles, including Javi Sanchez, who was sent to Ronaldo’s Real Valladolid.
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Vallejo had a disastrous 2019-2020 season with Wolves during his first loan spell. Wolves would not even play him, so Los Blancos had to give him a new loan deal to Granada. But the 23-year-old hasn’t done much for the Europa League hopefuls in Spain either, playing awful football in a mere 625 minutes.
But Vallejo is still young and talented, so it makes sense for Los Blancos not to fully give up on him. Yet because of how badly money is needed right now – and because of how poorly Vallejo has played in 2019-2020 – a sale of some sort makes the most sense.
Granada wants to keep Vallejo for another year, but AS reports that this is unlikely due to the center back’s salary. So it will be interesting to see where Vallejo could land.
Recall that Vallejo’s best year of football came in the Bundesliga with Eintracht Frankfurt, who could use a defensive reenforcement like Vallejo. He still has a great reputation in the Bundesliga due to that 2016-2017 season in which he recorded a whopping 2.8 interceptions per game, according to WhoScored.com.
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Eintracht even had interest in acquiring Vallejo earlier this season, so perhaps Real Madrid and the Eagles can get to the bargaining table again.